


Scoop: What Happened Next?

by dbud



Category: Scoop (2006), Suits (US TV)
Genre: Serial Killer, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:00:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21617998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbud/pseuds/dbud
Summary: Set several years after the end of the movie, Sondra Pransky has returned to America and is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after her ordeal with the killer Peter Lyman. During an evening out with some friends she tells the story of what happened after Peter was arrested and charged with murder.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Scoop: What Happened Next?

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on the events of the movie Scoop from 2006, starring Scarlett Johansson and starring/directed by Woody Allen. Knowledge of that movie is not necessary but this story does not attempt to explain that movies plot so having seen it is helpful.

**Scoop: What Happened Next?**

By dbud (feedback requested)

Summary: Set several years after the end of the movie, Sondra Pransky has returned to America and is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after her ordeal with the killer Peter Lyman. During an evening out with some friends she tells the story of what happened after Peter was arrested and charged with murder.

* * *

Starring:

Scarlett Johansson as Sondra Pransky (Scoop)

Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane (Suits)

Sarah Rafferty as Donna Paulsen (Suits)

Hugh Jackman as Peter Lyman (Scoop)

* * *

  
"Come on...tell the story again!" the beautiful mixed race woman nearly pleaded as the equally beautiful blonde woman sitting across the table rolled her eyes and exhaled letting her shoulders sag as she did.

"Not again, please Rachel, can't I go one girl's night out without telling it?"

The gorgeous brunette with the caramel colored skin seemed disappointed, “Pleeeeaassse! Donna hasn’t heard it."

Donna was the slightly older but beautiful redhead sitting at the table and was a co-worker of Rachel's. Both women worked at Pearson, Spector, & Litt, a prestigious law firm in Manhattan. They weren't lawyers though, Rachel was in her late twenties and a paralegal while Donna was in her mid thirties and was the executive assistant to one of the firm's rainmakers, a lawyer named Harvey.

Both women had made nearly every man's head turn when they had entered the bar and headed to sit with their friend. The three of them had every eye on them as well.

The woman being prodded to tell her story was Sondra Pransky. A pretty blonde in her late twenties with a curvy figure, Sondra worked for a gossip website but wanted to be a journalist. While Rachel and Donna knew each other from work and had become the best of friends over the past few years, Rachel and Sondra had known each other since childhood having gone to school together. While they each had moved on separate paths in life, Rachel to New York and Sondra to London for a time, they had reconnected when Sondra had moved back to the Big Apple.

The three women were finishing their first round of Appletini’s when Donna waved the handsome waiter over and ordered a round of Cosmo’s and chocolate martini's, they’re second in less than twenty minutes.

Whether it was because she knew there was no point in resisting or because the alcohol was loosening her up a bit, Sondra relented...

"Okay, okay..." she took another sip of her drink before she began..."a few years ago, right after I graduated college, I was in London staying with an old friend. While there I met a rich aristocrat named Peter Lyman...

"Man...” Rachel interjected as she took a sip of her drink…”was he good looking!"

Sondra gave her a dirty look.

“What? He was dreamy…I’d have fucked him in a second…I mean before I met Mike of course.”

“Are you done?” Sondra asked annoyed and then continued, "Yes he was but he was also a killer."

Donna, who had not heard this story before suddenly perked up, "Really!?!?"

"Yep. You see during the same few months I was there a serial killer called the Tarot Card Killer was preying on prostitutes...strangling them."

"Oh my god!" Donna seemed genuinely shocked.

Sondra nodded, "And I got a lead that Peter was the killer. So, I got close to him to investigate."

“Tell her how you did that,” Rachel told her annoying Sondra even further.

"I pretended to be drowning at his club so he would save me and we began to date."

"What a minute?" Donna said after gulping down a mouthful of her bright red cocktail, "You started dating a serial killer? SHUT…UP!"

"Well, I didn't know he was a killer then..."

"But you suspected him? That's why you were dating him, right? To get close…"

"Well, yeah,” Sondra couldn’t fault the logic…“So, while I was dating him they caught another guy who confessed to all the murders."

"Oh, so he was innocent?"

"Well, not exactly. Turns out he had killed one of the girls who he had been frequenting because she was blackmailing him."

"Oh, of course, he made it look like it was the serial killer had done it and just wove it into the series of other murders," Donna offered.

Rachel and Sondra both looked at her, "Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Lifetime movies...that's what the killer always does. So, how'd they catch this Peter guy?"

"He tried to kill me."

Donna nearly spit her drink out, "WHAT?!?! He tried to kill you!!???!?"

"Yep. Threw me out of a boat into a lake. See he didn't think I could swim because of how we'd met. But I could so I showed back up and told the cops what he'd done and that he'd confessed killing one of the prostitutes."

"So, he went to jail right?" Lisa asked.

"Well, there was a trial but he was acquitted."

"What? How?"

"Well, turns out there wasn't much hard evidence against Peter on the actual murder or that he had ever visited the prostitute or paid her off. So, basically it was my word on what had happened. Plus the fact that another guy had already confessed for the murder didn't help. And then there was Splendini's record."

"Um, I'm sorry did you say Splendini?"

“Oh did she forget to mention him?” Rachel added seeming to love hearing all this again.

“Well, I had a partner in the investigation. His name was Sal Waterman. He was a stage magician..."

"You teamed up with a magician to investigate a serial killer you were dating."

"Engaged to actually,” Rachel corrected.

"You were engaged?"Donna repeated as if she had not heard the statement or couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, he asked me to marry him and I accepted. But that was after he had been cleared of being the killer...or at least I thought he wasn't the killer."

"But this was before he tried to drown you?"

"Of course, I wouldn't have accepted after that."

"So, this Sal had an arrest record?"

"Oh, ah yeah. Turns out he had been convicted of fraud and embezzlement and spent about seven years in prison. So, the defense made it look like we were trying to swindle Peter since he was from a rich family and all."

"And since you were sleeping with him while investigating him..."

"And the director, don't forget him," Rachel added.

Sondra turned and gave her friend Rachel an exasperated look, "Dammit Rachel why'd you have to bring that up?!?"

"You slept with a director?"

"Well, I went to London to interview this famous director, Mike Tinsley..."

"Ohhh, I love his films...very artsey," Donna told the table.

"Yeah well, I went to interview him and during the interview I ended up having sex with him. So, again the defense made it look like I was just sleeping with Peter to get close to him too."

"But, isn't that what you were doing?"

"No, we were just fake dating while I thought he was the killer...I didn't sleep with him until after I thought he was innocent."

"Tell them about the ghost," Rachel blurted out.

"GOD-DAMMIT Rachel! Would you shut up!?! I was gonna leave that part out!"

"I know, that’s why I brought it up. That's the best part!"

"Uh, did you say ghost?" Donna asked tentatively.

Sondra slumped back but seemed resigned that she couldn't avoid the embarrassment that was about to be heaped upon her.

"All the other stuff maybe could have been explained away and the case against Peter was still pretty strong but when I was on the stand I got all flustered under cross examination and I mentioned how I got turned onto the investigation."

"And that involved a ghost?"

"Of a famous British journalist named Joe Strombel. He appeared to me while I was in a dematerializer box during Splendini’s act.”

"You were in a box? I'm totally lost."

"So was the jury...that's why they acquitted him. I was called up on stage during Sal's act and part of that was to get inside this big box. But when I was in there Joe appeared and told me about Peter."

"The ghost told you about the murderer? Did he kill this Joe guy?"

"Oh, no, Joe met a woman in the afterlife who told him she had been killed by Peter as part of the plot."

"So he killed two women not one..."

"Yeah, well maybe, we weren't sure about that part."

"Couldn't Sal back up your story?"

"Oh, I'm sure he would have but he was killed in a car wreck the same day Peter tried to kill me..."

Donna seemed speechless...”I was wrong…this is way better than a Lifetime movie.”

"So anyway because of all that they let him go and my reputation as a journalist was for shit...but my reputation as a slut who sleeps with men to con them out of money was A plus."

Just then she realized the waiter was standing right next to her setting her drink down and gave her a long stare.

"I came back to the states but even now I can only get a job working at a gossip rag."

"Oh honey," Rachel tried to cheer her up, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to depress you."

"Yes, let's change the subject...so Rachel..." Donna turned to her co-worker," You and Mike still fucking in the file room every chance you get?"

Rachel's face turned red as Sondra looked at her in shock and took a long gulp of Appletini while enjoying the tables being turned.

* * *

Several drinks later…

“Oh come one Donna, don’t go,” Rachel pleaded.

“Sorry ladies but I have a date. He’s tall, good looking, and he has the sexiest accent. Tonight’s our third date, so you know what that means?”

Donna made a circle with her thumb and forefinger and then inserted a finger from her other hand and began to move it back and forth through the hole.

“Classy Donna, classy,” Rachel told her.

* * *

Later that night, in Donnas’ apartment.

“Mmmmmmm,” Donna purred as she and her date made out.

Then, uncontrollably, she began to giggle.

“Um, is something wrong?” he asked seemingly hurt.

“Oh, ah, no, I’m sorry. It’s just, I was thinking about this story a friend of a friend told me earlier.”

“Oh well then, let’s hear it.”

“No, it’s too far-fetched. But what was making me laugh was it was about a wealthy British aristocrat named Peter. Isn’t that ironic?”

“And by that you mean…”

“And here I am in my apartment with a wealthy British aristocrat named Peter. And the most exciting part…in the story…he was a serial killer.”

“Oh my!” Peter exclaimed shocked by the turn of the story.

“Yep, he strangled strippers or something...,” she told him.

“Prostitutes.”

“Um, what?”

“I think you mean I strangled prostitutes.”

Donna froze at first assuming he was making a bad joke but Peter continued…

“You see, my real name is Peter Lyman and I am the man that Sondra, your friend Rachel’s friend, told you about. I’m the man from her story. The one she tried to send to prison.”

“I-I,” Donna seemed in shock.

“Yes, you see after the trial, I changed my name to get away from my reputation which had been destroyed. I left England and traveled to parts of the world where no one had ever heard of me or the trial. I just needed to get away.”

Peter leaned back as if telling Donna about his childhood or an old girlfriend.

“In any event, while I did achieve some anonymity, there was one thing I simply could not get away from…”

Peter paused as if for dramatic effect.

“…killing women. Can you believe it? I mean, when the whole thing started I just had to kill that slag whore because she was blackmailing me. Then of course, the albeit unsuccessful attempt on Sondra’s life.”

“And your secretary, don’t forget her,” Donna added almost absent minded.

“Oh, yes, true, she was a dry run as you American’s like to say. I needed to make sure I was up to it after all.”

Peter crossed his legs and rested his arm on the back off the couch to prop up his head as he spoke. It was like he was speaking to a therapist. To look at him the entire conversation seemed totally normal and not about him murdering several women.

“I mean, it was all out of necessity you understand. I was as shocked as anyone when I discovered I really enjoyed it. So as I began to travel I met women from around the world but in the back of my mind was this…how do I describe it? Like an itch that you just can’t scratch. Until one night, in Russia, standing on a train platform when a young woman, perhaps twenty or so shows up. Almost without realizing it, I was on her...my hand wrapped around he slim neck. I can still remember her eyes staring at me and asking 'why?' The prostitute I was with that night was the best sex I've ever had. And, well, since then I've been hooked."

As he spoke, he slipped a small rectangular placard from his pocket. Donna could see it was an employment badge to a hospital of some sort and on the front was a picture of a pretty and young woman with the first name Adriana and a last name she could not pronounce as it was a string of vowels in Russian. He paused as if remembering a fond memory while Donna sat in shock.

“It was my first real kill. I mean, not the first technically but the other two were out of necessity. But this one, Adriana, she was the first purely for pleasure. There have been…”

Peter paused as if counting, “Six since her. All over the world. From Brussels to Morocco to South America even. You will be my first American.”

“I know this won’t make sense to you Donna but you really have to experience it to understand. The absolute thrill of wringing a beautiful woman’s throat…”

As he spoke, Peter held both his hands in front of him and made a made a motion like he was strangling someone.

“Truly intoxicating. Plus there’s the hunt; I mean, meeting a woman and wooing her, knowing that she doesn’t have a clue you are going to kill her. My god, it is so exciting. Then the moment when you get to actually do it and the anticipation, like now…”

“Now?”

“Of course. You don’t actually think this is all a coincidence do you? Come on Donna, you are much smarter than that. I mean I came to New York to kill Sondra of course. I began watching her, stalking her, to learn her patterns, where she lived, things like that. I was about ready to end her when she happened to meet Rachel…that truly stunning, what’s the word? Mulatto? Is that right? Yes I think it is, mulatto woman. So, I decided to keep watching and that led me to you when you met them for dinner a few weeks back.”

Donna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Peter reached out and began to stroke Donnas' face and then took a few strands of her hair and twirl it in his fingers playfully.

"I was struck by your beauty but more than that, your dignity. You were stunning and I knew I must add you to my collection. So, from there it was easy to ‘arrange’ to bump into you one day,” Peter made air quotes as he spoke.

“And the rest, as they say, is history. And here we are.”

Suddenly, and for the first time, Peter turned to look at Donna and truly looked sinister. All Donna could think of was to run. And she did. Leaping up, Donna turned and bolted for the door. Unfortunately, she still wore the four inch heels she had on for dinner, even thinking how great her legs and ass looked in them when she had put them on.

Because of them though, she barely made it ten feet before Peter was on her. Grabbing a big handful of her thick red hair, he yanked back, nearly pulled Donna off her feet backwards.

“Not so fast bitch!” he snarled with true venom in his voice.

Spinning her, Peter drove a fist into Donna incredibly well toned stomach muscles. The beautiful redhead buckled and dropped to her knees.

‘This can’t be happening,’ she thought to herself.

But it was all too real. Donna suddenly felt a tightening around her throat and realized Peter had wrapped his necktie around her neck and was beginning to tighten it.

“P-Peter pl-plea..” but her words were cut off as he pulled it so tight it cut off her air.

Dropping his weight, he pushed her to the floor, straddling her lower back. Donna began to struggle but by now it was too late. Peter already out-weighed her by nearly a hundred pounds but he also had her on the floor and had her garroted. They both knew it was only a matter of time. Pulling back hard on both ends of the tie, Donna was stretched back unnaturally. She began to claw at the carpet frantically as her legs also began to flail in a desperate attempt to break free. But as was already obvious, it was a meaningless gesture or effort. She had no chance.

For nearly a minute, Peter kept up the pressure as Donnas’ face turned a shade of red first matching then surpassing her hair color. She clawed desperately at the tie in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure. As she did, small gurgling noises, the ones that Peter especially loved in his victims, came from her throat.

“That’s it Donna, just give it up. Don’t fight any more. It’s okay.”

Peter was speaking to her almost lovingly, intimately. A hard shudder surged through Donnas’ body as she convulsed wildly for several seconds. Peter loved this part, the final moments where she involuntarily fought the hardest as her body and mind rejected the idea of death. In response, Peter dropped forward, pulling the garrote so tight it constricted her throat to nearly half its normal diameter and he pinned her to the floor. As Donna entered her final moments, Peter began to grind his hips into her buttocks. His erection was forced against her and in only a matter of seconds he climaxed.

As his cock exploded inside his pants, Donnas’ body went limp and her head fell forward into the carpet.

“OH GOD!” he screamed in ecstasy as he climaxed just as Donna Paulson died.

Laying on top of her, he kept the tie pulled tight for another minute until he was sure she was dead and his orgasm ran its course. Finally, Peter rolled off her and onto his back next to the beautiful corpse laying face down on the floor. For a good five minutes, Peter simply lay motionless, his eyes closed as he savored his kill.

“You might be my best yet Donna,” he told the dead body laying next to him as if she could hear him.

“Definitely top two; there was that fifteen year old Australian model. Man, she was sweet. But she was not nearly the woman you are…oh, sorry, I mean were.”

Peter reached over and turned Donnas’ head and brushed the hair back from her face. Rolling over to his side, he lay next to her, his face only inches from hers. Donnas’ large eyes, bloodshot from the strangulation, which Peter had learned was common, stared blankly at him. Finally, he stood. Pulling out his smart phone Peter took several dozen pictures of his newest conquest from every angle. Making sure he wiped down every surface and washed thoroughly his wine glass, he prepared to leave confident he had left no DNA evidence behind. Even if he had, after the trial in England his DNA had been expunged by order of the judge. And a few well placed bribes to police officers made sure the original evidence was destroyed so there would be no chance of going back to it. Plus, in the countries he had been working the past few years, DNA was barely even used.

Peter slipped his coat on and paused at the door to look back on Donnas’ corpse before he left.

“I’ll give Sondra and Rachel your best Donna.”

Pulling the brim of his hat down to conceal his face, he left down the stairwell where there were no cameras and out the front door, past the camera he had disabled the night before once the date was final.

He walked for nearly a half mile before hailing a cab to take him back to his hotel where he would pick up a prostitute for the night.


End file.
